Summer sports: Table tennis is a highly dramatic affair

1: Science has determined

Table tennis, science says, extends life by up to ten years. You might not believe it at first, but it is true. Table tennis is a strategic mental exercise with high physical exertion at the same time. Table tennis is an ultra-fast, tactical sport; it particularly stimulates the rear areas of our brain that are otherwise not so stressed. That’s what science says, and they have to know. It is the short, repetitive intervals associated with high intensity that are the coordination challenges. All of this has effects that have a positive impact on our mental and physical health. So far, so beautiful.

Now the intelligent hitting sport is preferably played in cool sports halls. There is no breeze and no ray of sunlight breaks through the phalanx of artificial light sources. And you slip around on the plastic floors. Can this be healthy, especially for the joints?

Let’s put it this way: The cool halls also guarantee top players from Egypt or India, actually emerging world powers in the otherwise Chinese-influenced sport, which is now trying to attract attention through tournaments like tennis. If you look at it on YouTube, you have to say that it only works to a limited extent. And yes, table tennis can be hard on your knees, especially on hard indoor floors. But otherwise it is an extremely low-injury sport.

2: Pingpong Delight

Of course, it’s summer, so the popular popular sport can also be practiced outdoors: on the famous stone slabs, which are now more common in the cityscape of an average, progressive city than climbing frames. In some cities, Münster for example, they can at least be found on the Internet. With directions.

For those who are used to playing table tennis indoors, playing on the stone slab seems quite Stone Age. The edge of the net is a real obstacle, the ball bounces high with an annoying noise and rarely lands on the other half of the table. The ball also bounces differently on stone than on wood, and there are the most important components of nature: the wind and the sun.

The sun can be blinding and will eventually set, but the industry has now come up with a remedy for that too. In addition to caps, sunglasses, parasols and parasols, there are wide lamps for when it gets dark, which can be ordered via Pingpongdelight, the nice keyword here is “pulse width modulation capacitor neutral conductor destroyer”.

Wind protection is also available, you know this from the beach, but if in doubt you have to live with the conditions, that’s what makes the game exciting.

3: Futschikato

Table tennis is otherwise a fairly predictable sport. Means the better one will win; Only later, in the championship games, will you see ways in which you can claim victory as a supposedly worse player. A key word for this is “mental coolness”. In table tennis, every point counts, because a normal game no longer lasts that long. Since around this millennium, people no longer play with 21 points per set, but only with 11; There are three winning sets instead of just two. A misstatement, just as an example, at 9:9 makes a big difference. One more netball from the opponent and the set in which you looked good for a long time is gone.

4: Chinese dreams

It is said that Chinese people are particularly good at “mental coolness”. After all, there are Asian martial arts in which this principle applies and is practiced: the principle of clarity of mind. Of absolute emotional control in a moment of struggle. But of course these are not the only reasons why China is the world power in table tennis.

The original reason had to do with Mao. He recognized the potential of the funny sport, which was first cultivated and shaped by Englishmen in small clubs and later by Jewish players from the wealthy of middle Europe, to bring the Chinese people far forward. So he said: “Consider the ping-pong ball as the head of your capitalist enemy. Hit him with your socialist bat and you’ve won the point for the fatherland.”

Well, it’s not that easy anymore. Firstly, the hit ball comes back faster than a good Maoist would like. Secondly, the socialist racket is just nostalgia – what should it actually look like, the socialist racket?

5: The industry

The socialist racket could be one with pimples: it destroys the players’ game with the sticky, grippier, sleek rubbers. But now the cultural differences have largely leveled out: The world-class player, who today still holds the grip as strangely as all Chinese used to do, namely in the so-called penholder grip, comes from France and is called Felix Lebrun, number 5 in the world rankings. His brother Alex holds the blade is as normal as the top four in the men’s world rankings. They all come from China.

You have to look for the first player with pimples in the world rankings; and the rubbers that the players play do not only come from the Mecca of cheap products, China. They also come from Germany, Sweden and France. The brands that you have to remember if you get into the sport more seriously are Joola, Donic, Butterfly, Stiga or DHS. Anyone who can still remember Schildkröt is old.

6: Quality

As with everything, quality is important here too. But it can start at just 30 euros per racket. And just under 500 euros for what is currently the most expensive racket in the world has to be topped. Table tennis can be expensive fun, but overall never as expensive as tennis. But table tennis can also be very cheap fun, you can probably find an old paddle somewhere and it’s probably not far to the nearest park with a stone slab.

7: Beer in hand, bottle deposit

The other option is of course the good old club. So the one with no dance floor, but with a DJ and a record for running around. Fifty people in casual looks walk around the plate a few times until the best two emerge for a finale. Most recently, I almost crashed a company party in a Scottish themed restaurant when I kept competing in the finals of the round-trip with one of the secretary. The bosses had long since left. That was a nice evening.

8: Experience world

In general, table tennis is a world of adventure in itself, even in traditional clubs. Everything is waiting there, from primary school gymnasiums to former barns, ballrooms and air raid shelters as venues for officially organized clubs. I played in health insurance administration buildings, in converted train station waiting rooms and assembly halls of former small industries. Depending on which association you are in, you can play against sprightly old people, against wheelchair users, against children, against young women. Sometimes all together in the same team match.

9: Die Stars

And you can emulate the stars, the top performers, depending on the generation. When I started out, Jan-Ove Waldner, Gatien and Simonic were the stars, today it’s Fan Zhedong and Ma Long, and soon the Lebruns or Patrick Franziska. Timo Boll was also quite good at times.

10: The technology

These stars often have books written or YouTube tutorials filmed or websites filled with table tennis explanation bears. Then you learn something about the correct technique, the different strokes, the strategies. From serve to topspin to balloon defense.

11: Match point

Finally, let me tell you that table tennis is also a highly dramatic affair. Match points fended off, games turned around, sets extended until sunrise are not uncommon. Many a racket has also hit the hall wall, but so far none of them have been mine. The thing about mental coolness should be learned first.

René Hamann, author and journalist in Berlin and Vienna, played table tennis at club level from 1987 to 1992 and again since 2022. The individual finals at the Olympic Games are on Saturday and Sunday.